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Justice News

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Maryland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Calvert County Man Sentenced To Over 8 Years In Prison For Transporting Child Pornography

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced David Dobbs, age 55, of Port Republic, Maryland, today to 104 months in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for transporting child pornography. Judge Messitte ordered that 14 months of Dobbs’ sentence be concurrent to his state sentence. Judge Messitte also ordered that upon his release from prison, Dobbs must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Colonel Marcus L. Brown, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to the plea agreement, on two occasions in 2010, Dobbs used a file sharing program to make his files of child pornography available to undercover law enforcement officers, who downloaded a total of 16 videos and five images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On September 13, 2010, Dobbs also engaged in a chat with the undercover officer, telling the officer that he liked “girls around seven years old and up.”

On April 13, 2012, Dobbs was interviewed in connection with another investigation and admitted using a file sharing program and a particular screen name when he chatted with the undercover officer. A search warrant was executed at Dobb’s residence and law enforcement seized a laptop computer and an SD card that appeared to have been pierced with a blunt instrument. Child pornography was recovered from the computer and the SD card, including images of prepubescent children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI and Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristi N. O’Malley and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney LisaMarie Freitas of the U.S. Justice Department, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, who prosecuted the case.